The dining room table continues in it's 3rd incarnation. 95% of the black poly coat has been removed and a little bit of texture has been added with a fifty year old wire brush. The remaining polycoat is pixilated and dispersed throughout the grain, and around the edges. The big question now is do I work it all away or attempt to compliment the residual black poly with a fresh coat, just added around the edges.

I had a client once who over the course of a year redid her fireplace three times. Each time she did the space it was a magnificent upgrade to the previous iteration. She was obsessive and comfortable enough with the thought of just changing it. The fact that the only reason why she changed it was cause it wasn't nice enough was the point. This clients house is magazine worthy, she general contracted it herself, with little experience, outside of having done a house before, with the same exacting detail. And it helped that she was always comfortable with redoing work, regardless of price.

You have to be willing to undo work you've done, regardless of time or financial investment, if you want the best results. The table is a work in progress, it's not so finished that we can't play with it. It took about two hours to get it back down to the bare wood. At various intervals I almost stopped, as the wood had an interesting vibe about it. Now the question is do I clear coat it and lose the detail, or do I use a tinted a stain to make the table a focal point.

The big point is that this detail is really striking, and hopefully the goal is that we'll be able to keep it's rich texture, that the poly coat –or stain won't just muddy it all up and make it look well, like a tan wooden table. I want a little more pop than that.